What did we gain in Cyprus?

However, the status quo which wants Cyprus to stay as is moved to hinder this. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul were able to show enough willpower to overcome the supporters of the status quo and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas. Finally the TRNC said ‘yes’ to the plan.

We will get a date for membership talks from the EU in December. From now on, there is no danger of our being accused of being the side blocking an agreement. This is our greatest gain in the long run. Supporters of the status quo in Turkey had expected that we would say ‘no’ to the Cyprus plan and that the EU’s doors would be closed to us in December, and they even tried for this. We would have become an EU member with the conditions imposed by our supporters of the status quo.

Have we gained something else? The Cyprus issue has been an obstacle in our foreign relations for 30 years. This is a very important gain in the medium term. Another gain is that if the embargo on the TRNC is ended, Turkey will be rescued from the burden of propping up the Turkish Cypriots. They will become EU members in a very short period of time and have the opportunity to develop. In the background, other positive developments might have occured. However, if Annan’s plan had been accepted and implemented, Turkey, Greece, all of Cyprus, the EU, the US and the UN would have been relieved. But, it didn’t happen.”